Arturia Prophet-V

Prophet 5 Mode

Arturia's Prophet-V offers something no other major soft synth maker has
with respect to the classic Prophet synth emulators. The Prophet-V offers
two of Sequential Circuits most groundbreaking instruments in one
complete package: The analog king Prophet 5 and the vector based
ProphetVS synthesizers. What's even more delicious about the Prophet-V,
is that these two divergent synthesis systems can be combined into a
Hybrid mode allowing for Prophet-like sounds never before possible with
previous software emulations or even the original vintage machines - at
least not at this affordable price or in such a convenient and intuitive
package! Available as a stand-alone and plug-in soft synth for Mac and
PC, the Prophet-V supports VST, DXi, Audio Units, RTAS, ASIO and
Core Audio.

First we'll examine the Prophet 5 emulation. Arturia uses their TAE
(True Analog Emulation) synthesis to offer a true replica of the classic
Prophet 5 - one of the first polyphonic programmable synthesizers of its
time. The sounds are classic seventies analog: warm, gritty and unique.
The interface looks nearly identical to the original, and offers the
same basic subtractive synthesis that should be familiar and intuitive
enough to any musician who's been around an analog synth. Like the P5,
it has two oscillators (A: saw & square; B: saw, triangle, square) with
pulse-width and noise and individual mixer controls. A 24dB/oct
(self-oscillating) filter with cutoff, resonance, env amt, kybd
tracking, and ADSR controls. An amplifier with ADSR. An LFO section with
saw, tri and square wave shapes and a rate control. Sequential's
Poly-Mod section, Wheel-Mod section, Legato - all 54 parameters of the
original Prophet are here. Arturia tried so hard to remain true to the original
that the Prophet-V ships with the original factory Prophet 5 patches -
all 40 of them - loaded into its memory. Arturia's new features include
just a monophonic Unison mode, a Sustain feature, plus Chorus and Delay
effects (and of course, unlimited patch memory along with a bunch of
additional patches programmed by renowned sound designers).

Sonically, the Prophet 5 emulation is spot on! The original P5 has a
very unique sound, due to the age of its components and the nature of
its chips that were available during its production. They sound warm but
also, sometimes, a little thin or lacking in the meat department. But
because of a P5's age, they are prone to having dirty or distorted
artifacts, noisy pots, flaky buttons that may or may not work, dead keys
on the keyboard, and a tendency to drift out of tune the more it warms
up. All these may add up to "character," but in a real world scenario,
they can be a burden. This is where the Prophet-V comes in, with a sound
quality that is unmistakably Prophet, but without the "age" in its
sound or interface. This is one Prophet that will remain in tune and will never let
you down in the studio or on stage (unless of course your computer
crashes). Due to the outrageous prices and rarity of vintage P5s, the
Prophet-V is an excellent way to add the sounds and the feel of using
and programming one to your synth studio - the Prophet 5 emulation alone
is worth it, rivaling and in some ways out-doing competing soft synth
replicas of the P5!

ProphetVS Mode

Next up is the ProphetVS emulation, one of the few places where you can
find this form of synthesis in a software synth. Briefly, the ProphetVS
was a ground breaking synth for Sequential that uses digitally stored
waveforms in a table, which are freely selected and blended together
(usually with a joystick) by the user. This synth came out right at
the same time that Sequential went out of business, so the original
machines are quite rare and sought after. Their technology, however,
went directly into the Korg Wavestation series and also the Waldorf
Microwave series.

So, back to the Prophet-V. Actually, the ProphetVS is not visually
replicated here, in fact the Prophet-V looks almost nothing like the
original. But that's a good thing, the original had a very primitive and
counterintuitive interface, which has been remedied here, some 20
years later by Arturia. There are the same 96 digitally sampled waveforms of the original ProphetVS here,
and you can choose up to four of them for your sound. You can see a
graphic representation of each waveform as you browse through them while
assigning them to each of the four oscillators. Frequency and tuning
for each osc can be adjusted. Then there is the Vector-based joystick,
which is basically the mixer that lets you adjust how much of each
waveform will be heard - the interactions of the various waveforms you
choose will yield interesting but almost entirely unpredictable results
- experimentation is the name of the game!

There are few other basic
synth functions including a filter which can be set to Low Pass, High Pass,
Band Pass, or Band Reject modes, with cutoff, resonance and env amount
controls. The filter has a 5-point envelope that can be drawn for unique
shapes. The amp section offers volume and stereo pan controls
for all voices or each of the five separate voices independently (this
can allow for some awesome stereo sounds). The Amp also has a 5-point
envelope that can be drawn, just like the filter. All envelopes are
shown as graphic representations of their shape. There's also two simple
LFOs with tri, saw, square, ramp and random waveforms and a rate
control. The complex modulation capabilities of the original ProphetVS are
greatly simplified in Arturia's graphically displayed Modulation matrix
section, where you can intuitively assign a Mod source (LFOs, pressure,
velocity, envelopes, mod wheel) to a destination (osc frequencies, osc
mix amounts, filter cutoff, env, LFO rates, volumes, panning, etc.).
This allows you to create far more dynamic sounds that can move around in
stereo, evolve over time, undulate, vibrate and morph - all in a manner
much more easy to understand and execute than on the original machine.
In addition, Arturia has added some new features to the ProphetVS such
as chorus and delay effects, and unison and legato modes. Oh, and in
case you have not already figured it out, the Prophet-V sounds as close
to the original instrument as any modern day computer based software
instrument can, thanks to Arturia's excellent TAE synthesis.

Prophet-V Hybrid Mode

For the low, low price of this software package, this is an unbeatable
way to acquire pretty much everything the classic Sequential line of
synths had to offer. And even though each of these two emulations are
amazing on their own, let's not forget that Arturia has allowed us a
Hybrid mode where you can join the Prophet 5 and the ProphetVS together
into a monster synth! This is where sounds that you never thought
possible from a Sequential start to emerge. While the two synths are
still independent of each other, they are joined via the Modulation
matrix and an audio mixer. So in the Mod matrix you can actually
modulate P5 parameters through some of the PVS' mod sources, and
likewise some of the PVS' parameters can be modulated by some of the
P5's mod sources. The stacked hybrid also shares the same chorus and
delay effects as well.

Out of the box, the Prophet-V comes with original factory patches for
the P5 and the PVS. There are additional programmed sounds for each
instrument and there are a bunch of programmed sounds for the Hybrid
mode, for over 500 programs out of the box! Import of MIDI sysex from
original P5 and PVS synths is also supported so you can load in your own
custom patches from the real synths or from the plethora of patch files
available from libraries and the internet. Patches are organized by
synth type and sound type and there are convenient blank template
patches to get you started programming your own personal sounds. The
Prophet-V supports up to 96kHz for superior digital sound quality, and
with no aliasing from 0.1 Hz up to 16kHz. Polyphony is also up from the
originals (the P5 had 5 voices, the PVS had 8 voices) supporting from 2
up to 32 voices. For its price, the audio quality, intuitive interface,
emulative accuracy, and expanded abilities and possibilities, the
Arturia Prophet-V is an amazing instrument that belongs in every
musician's computer, and is definitely worth checking out before choosing
to throw down two times or more money on an unreliable original vintage
version - unless of course "character" is all you're after.

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